1. Chapter One

Chapter One

Will Johnson ignored the ache in the small of his back, the inevitable pinch in his most comfortable sneakers, the sticky smear of half-congealed milkshake on his arm, and smiled at the customer in front of him.

Maybe it should've been hard, but actually, it was the easiest thing in the world. He loved this town, this new life, and most of all, the fact that it was his name above the door, his name printed on the napkins and on the menu, and that he controlled all of it. Finally .

Of course, this particular customer strained some of that happiness, but it was still easier than he'd ever imagined to smile at her and mean it.

"Welcome to Cherry's," he said. "What can I get you?"

"Oh, Will," Giana Moretti said, shooting him her family's trademark charming smile, "I forget how beautiful the store is and then I walk in and I'm just blown away all over again."

It was practically a crime not to smile at Giana when she smiled at you, especially like that. But by now he knew a smile was only the beginning.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kate, his manager and one of his three employees, wincing, as Giana reached out and put a hand on his arm.

The arm smeared with milkshake, no less.

But that didn't deter her, because in the two months Cherry's had been open, Will had learned that almost nothing deterred Giana Moretti.

"Thanks," he said. "What can I get you today, Giana?" Hoping that maybe this visit would be more straightforward than the last two. Like maybe Giana would order an ice cream cone or a sundae or a milkshake and then give him that big Moretti smile right before she walked back out of his door.

But if he'd been a betting man, he'd have lost.

"Oh, Will, you know exactly what you can get me," she said, a knowing light brightening her dark eyes. "And it's not some of your delicious ice cream."

"Unfortunately that's all that's on the menu today," he said, softening the blow with one of his own smiles.

I'm not on the menu.

Will could acknowledge that he'd had some overly flirtatious customers through his many years working in food service, but he'd never had one who wanted what Giana wanted.

Not a date for her. But for her son .

"Oh, what can it hurt?" she questioned. "You just text him—you kids are always texting, Luca tries to tell me why but I don't listen." She waved her hand, like she was dismissing her nephew's explanation in real time. "Enzo's such a nice boy, Will. Handsome and so smart. A wonderful painter."

Will struggled to keep a straight face. "I'm sure he is," he said. "But you know how busy I am getting this place going." And this very handsome and smart son, who's a wonderful painter, isn't even here in Indigo Bay.

Not that he'd been tempted to take the number anyway. It was too weird and he was not desperate enough for a date to let Giana Moretti deploy her matchmaking tactics on him.

She still claimed that she'd been instrumental in pairing Luca, her nephew, up with the town baker, Oliver Billings. Of course, Luca and Oliver had something else to say about how their relationship had begun.

"Life is not work, Will," Giana said very seriously. "I tell Enzo this all the time. He works too hard." She brightened. "Something else you have in common!"

Will had lost count of how many things he and Enzo apparently shared.

This was only the last one in a long line.

"Ah, well. That's . . .uh . . .good."

"You know my nephew?" Giana asked archly.

Will definitely knew Luca Moretti. He owned two businesses in this town and shared another with his husband, Oliver.

Maybe Will had only been here in town for six months, but he liked to think they'd become his friends, too.

Her voice dropped and she leaned in. Will wished someone else would come in and actually order something, so he could pawn her off. But the door stayed stubbornly closed. "You know how handsome Luca is. Enzo is even more handsome."

Will lost the fight with himself and winced, too. "He is," he agreed, even though he very much wanted to lie and say no, nobody would ever look twice at Luca Moretti.

"Then I will give you Enzo's number and you will text him. Tell him to come home to his momma and her cooking—but most importantly, for a date with you," she said, already decided as she whipped a piece of paper out of her purse.

Will stared at it.

She'd doodled a little heart next to the number.

"I'm sorry, Giana, really. Really sorry. But I really can't." How many reallys are required to convince her, Will? You think you've hit the magic number, yet? He tacked on another, for good measure. "Really."

Giana shot him a look full of disappointment, and Will ignored the pulse of guilt.

"Really?"

Nope. You didn't hit it yet.

"Really," Will said, with emphasis.

But then that Moretti smile bloomed across her face—and she was still beautiful; honestly she didn't look old enough to have a grown-up son, but Will wasn't going to tell her that, because if he did, he'd have to hear just how handsome Enzo Moretti was again.

"Oh, you will change your mind someday," she said knowingly. "He is such a delightful boy."

"I'm sure he is," Will said weakly. "You know, I'm just not really in the market for . . .uh . . .anything. Serious or otherwise."

He'd made the mistake last time of telling her he wasn't in the market for a relationship, and she'd gone on a long tangent about ‘hookups' that could lead to more, and by the time she'd finished, he'd been bright red and something beyond embarrassed.

"I understand," Giana said, patting him on the arm again. "You've got this beautiful new business. But someday . . ." There was that smile again. It was potent, Will could give her that.

And he wondered, before he could stop himself, if Enzo Moretti could smile like that, too.

"Maybe someday," Will said firmly. "Are you sure I can't get you something? A nice treat?"

He almost told her if she could actually get Enzo into town, he'd consider it more seriously, but if he did, Will had a feeling she'd fly to wherever Enzo was and drag him home by the hair.

She inclined her head. "A scoop of cherry pie, please, Will, darling."

Five minutes and an ice cream dish full of his cherry pie ice cream later, she was gone, finally .

"I told you she wasn't going to give up," Kate said, leaning on the counter as they watched Giana's back disappear out of the shop, the door closing behind her.

"I should've listened to you." The last time Giana had come in, he'd been so sure that was the end of it. Frankly, he'd been sure the first time he'd told her no, he didn't want her to set him up with her son, she'd give up.

But Giana was nothing if not persistent.

"You should've," Kate agreed.

He turned to her, when Giana had passed by his last window, finally out of sight. "What's the deal with Enzo Moretti?" he finally asked. He'd very specifically refused to give in to his curiosity, either in front of Giana or after she'd disappeared, because God only knew what kind of magical matchmaking powers she possessed.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me Giana's actually convinced you that you're interested?"

"How can I be interested in a man I've never met, who's apparently not been back here in almost a year?"

"Fair." Kate considered his question as she straightened a tower of glass banana split dishes. "Well, he's Giana's son, of course. No dad. They moved here when he was seven. And she started the deli. You know about Luca's family, of course."

Will nodded. That had been one of the first bits of gossip he'd heard when he'd moved to Indigo Bay. About Luca Moretti and his whole chain of Italian restaurants on the west coast, in the Napa Valley, but how he'd moved here instead.

To marry Oliver Billings, who owned the local bakery.

Six months later, Luca had bought the deli from Giana, and she'd effectively retired, and apparently, soon after that, Enzo had left town.

"He went to San Francisco for art school, I think. Or maybe Los Angeles? Anyway, before he left town, he was kind of a hot mess."

"A Moretti? I'm surprised they allowed it," Will joked.

"Oh, it was a problem. He tried to date Oliver."

"He dated Oliver ?" Will hadn't heard this piece of gossip. And it stopped him in the middle of restocking the preserved cherries that topped every one of his ice cream creations.

"One date, supposedly. And it didn't go well. But he sulked about that forever . Then you know, Luca came to town and met Oliver, himself, and they fell in love and that went over even worse."

"I can imagine," Will said dryly. Kate was going to be a great manager—smart and strategic and personable—but she was also a fantastic source of local gossip.

"Anyway, I guess the problem wasn't so much Oliver, but that Enzo wanted to be an artist, and Giana wouldn't let him go away for school. But pretty much the moment Luca moved here, off he went. He hasn't been back much, not since then, but every time he does come back, he seems more and more normal. Way less petulant. So that's a plus in the yes , you should listen to Giana and text him ."

Will ignored her teasing jest.

"Doesn't sound like how Giana described him." Giana had described him as a combination of Apollo and Harry Styles and Luca.

"That woman does not have a firm grasp on what her son's really like," Kate said.

"So that's why he needs his mother to get him dates," Will theorized.

"Well, I don't know about that," Kate hedged. "But she certainly believes in the best version of him. He is successful, apparently a really successful mural painter. Like the big ones, like whole sides of buildings." Her expression became knowing. "He's got an Instagram, you know."

"Everyone has an Instagram," Will said.

"Yeah, but you could check him out. See what he looks like."

"Does he really look like a combination of Luca and Jesus?"

Kate laughed. "I guess so. I don't know. You know he isn't my type."

"Men aren't your type," Will retorted.

"Exactly. But he'd be your type. He's definitely Moretti issue. And you know they're all attractive."

In the six months he'd been here, Will had met a variety of Morettis. Luca and Giana, obviously, but also several of Luca's brothers and sisters, who came here every so often to visit him. Then there was Rocco, another cousin, who was in town to work for Oliver and Luca and save up money for his own business someday. And yep—they were all attractive. Every single one of them.

"I don't want to date someone just because they're hot," Will complained.

"And Enzo is well . . .Enzo."

Will shot her a knowing look.

"If I'd known Giana was going to hyper-fixate on you as a possible mate for her son, I'd have told you to keep your queerness under your hat."

Will rolled his eyes. "I think I told Luca the first day I was here. It wasn't going to stay a secret. I didn't even want it to. She'll . . .well, she'll just have to get over it."

"Giana Moretti doesn't just move on from things," Kate reminded him. "You know you could just text him. It might not even kill you."

"No," Will said stubbornly. "I'm not going to let her bully me into dating her son."

"You say that now," Kate said, laughing.